Friday, April 29, 2011

I worked 8:30-5 last night. We had extra magic hours from midnight to 3 am. Only the Chapeau and Confectionery and CCC stays open. We were all stocked and finished closing by 4. We had our closing meeting and then our manager said she would ER us to go home or we could stay til our bumpout time and she would find us work to do. So we did some deep dusting in uptown for about 40 minutes and then we watched the royal wedding! :) haha it was so fun.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Heres one more for the previous list
- Don't ask where the nearest restroom is if you are going to A, contradict me and demand another one, B say you dont care which direction it is and then tell me you want to go the opposite way I'm directing you, or C tell me it is not the closest restroom.

To celebrate Easter since I did not have a yummy ham dinner, I decided to not exercise and eat only junk food. So I skipped my planned 4 mile run this morning, got take out for lunch and bought dinner in the Mouseketeeria and ate some M&Ms I got in my easter basket :)

... tomorrow I definately need to go for that 4 mile run!

The park seemed surprisingly not very crowded today. I sewed a little in the Chapeau, went to a non-rotational register in Curtain Call, short time in the jewlery store where i broke my nametag off of the pin and had to tape it back together. and finished up in CCC again.

Our managers came by the store at the end of the night and hid bags of jelly beans everywhere for us to find! haha it was really fun

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Today my shift was 445-1:15 again. Everything went pretty smoothly. I would just like to create a list of very common shopping issues guests have so that whoever may be reading this can avoid such problems when they visit as guests. I definately do not mind helping guests, I rather enjoy that part of my job but there are a few things that could make things easier for themselves because believe it or not I do not have as much magic as Mickey and Tink - and they are some very busy characters.
1. Almost everything actually has a price on it if you look, and unfortunately as a castmember I have not memorized the price of every merchandise item in the Magic Kingdom.
2. If we have run out of stock for an item, I am not making it up for fun, we actually don't have any and making me go in the back to call other locations or look for one really hard wont change that it still doesnt exist, and unfortunately if it doesnt exist i cannot create it. I am not Santa's Elf :(
3. If you really really really R-E-A-L-L-Y want a very specific item DO NOT wait until the last 5 hours of your vacation to start shopping for it!! If it only exists at Epcot or Downtown Disney I again unfortunately cannot go there and use my personal key to get in and get it for you.
4. I have no say in how much Mickey wants for his ears, food, ponchos or other item in the park. I appreciate your kind feedback but I don't even know how I might get that advice to the person in charge... I'm pretty sure the Main Street area manager won't even know.
5. Sit down restaurants take reservations almost six months in advance...hence why you cannot just walk in and eat when you are ready to. Also if you do not consider a buffet with a waiter to bring you drinks a sit down restaurant you probably don't even want to eat at Magic Kingdom period.
6. Asking what magic we create or how we create the magic ruins the magic, hence our very creative stories to answer your questions... if you like magic (which we are assuming you do since you are at the most magical place on earth) just accept it and have fun.
7. You cannot cut thru the Firehouse during the Electrical Light Parade, you cannot cross the Parade route and you cannot get to Adventureland. The Parade is 20 minutes long. Plan accordingly.
8. The confectionery doesn't have ice cream.
9. I do not carry a pocketfull of pinbacks in my pocket. You can buy 20 of them for $2.
10. For everyones nerves including your own, if you want characters to sign your ear hat have it embroidered FIRST so if it gets messed up they can give you a new hat.
11. The monorail and the train, are not the same thing.
Simple enough right??
Today I met Princess Taylor, she bought a brand new belle dress, matching gloves, purse, crown and wand! She was so cute and modeled it all for us. Another cast member taught her some poses and she was so fun. She even signed our own autograph book!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

I had a bunch of really awesome guests I met last night. One woman lived on Walton Blvd! Just down the road from Oakland! hah Another woman had met castmember Jared earlier in the day and he had a pin she wanted to trade for, but she had left to check with her daughter to see if that was the right one, he had been moved on rotation when she got back. She was willing to wait bc they thought he was on break, but that was the wrong Jared! So I finally tracked down the other Jared in Curtain Call and got his pin and took it back to her in the Jewlery store and she was so excited! I can't believe he still had it after two hours but it was there, and it was the last one she needed for the set! She was so happy she didnt stop saying thank you until she left and I thought she might cry. Its so nice to have such nice guests! Theyre really fun

I had another smaller guest, he was probably 9 or so, who had a vinylmation in cinema and I asked him if he wanted to trade in the mystery box. But he liked the one he had and so I told him he could pick 3 numbers just to see what we had and he didnt have to trade but he didnt seem to want to do that either. He was pretty shy, so i told him I would show him my favorite ones for the day. The second one I showed him was a purple mardi gras vinylmation and his dad wwas all excited and told me that his son had been looking for that one and it was one of his favorites too, so he traded for that and the kid was still really quiet but all smiles. And his dad was reallyy excited and it was cute.. what were the chances.
This is the cute little vinymation he traded for:

Friday, April 22, 2011

Just got back from a short little 2 mile run but its so much fun to play with this Nike+ thing!

I'm kinda bummed bc if you turned in a recycling item at the clubhouse today you could get entered in a raffle to win CP stuff but... i slept in too late.. oops :( Sidenote: If you haven't been on Google today it looks pretty neat.

Working shops 445-115 tonight. I found another cast member that likes stocking shifts and he is willing to trade my stocking shift on easter sunday for his shops shift the same day. I put it in the Hub today so hopefully it will go thru alright!

I'm almost halfway thru my book on my Kindle app, its pretty good so far. I've been trying to take the bus to save on gas money but it also gives me time to read on the way home so it works out pretty nicely.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Had a great night at work. Got there early & they were short so I got to start early :) which is nice bc we got everything done tonight and we all got an ER (early release). I was greeting in confectionery today and this dad asked me where the free samples were bc I was carrying around a basket... Well they weren't seeming like they were in much of a hurry so I asked his daughter if she wanted to play an m&m game with me. It's a game with all different cups of m &m s each one is a character and u can guess who they r by the colors, it's really pretty cool. SO after she and this other little girl figured them all out I gave them little cups to fill with m&ms :) I happened to have a 3rd one so i gave it to her dad so he ended up with a free sample hehe

The night flew by after my 2nd break the next time I looked at the clock two hours had gone by! It was pretty busy, and I found a pin set in the lollipop bin ! Hah idk how they made it there from the shop next door... I had my second guest ask me what/ where main street is... Really people.?

At the end we got everything restocked and got out about an hour early! Woohoo ... I'm starting to get sleepy so I think it's time for bed...

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I had 2 awesome days off. Day 1 we had a cleaning inspection so we had to get up early and they come in the apartment and look at everything and a guy comes in and sprays for bugs (ew). We passed but we didnt get a white glove award this time. I spent the rest of the day baking chocolate chip cookies. I went to Walmart to get a new windshield wiper since one of my mine decided to spontaneously fly off at 2:30 am on my way home from work last week. So despite the skeptical comments from Mike and Dad ;) I totally fixed it with minimal help from them haha.
Yesterday I went for a short run.. man its hot! Then an adventure to a Nike outlet, for some new shoes and a receiver for the sensor in my shoe. It connects to my ipod and tracks how far i go and it talks to me, its very cool. I used it today and I'm totally pumped about it. I went to the pool to read my new book (mom got for me for christmas) I just downloaded it to my ipod.
This is a pic of the part that plugs into the ipod and the shoe sensor:

and the new shoes:

Today I have to go back to work ... 7-3:45! woohoo but I went for a run (again SOO hot!) but it was still fun bc I had my new Nike+ thing to play with and then it uploads to a website that tracks everything for you whenever you plug your ipod in! So neat!
I also registered myself for a 5k my roommate Katie and I have been talking about doing... hahah should be interestingggg...
Better get going so I can catch the bus :)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mike was here for 3 days and it was a nice little vacation! I had Sunday off so we went to Epcot & Magic Kingdom, we got to do tons of stuff because the lines werent long at all! It was awesome. We got to ride Livin' with the Land, which the last few times ive been to the park ive had to skip :) Test Track, Mission Space, Energy.. we walked world showcase and had lunch in China. We tried to stay at MK for fireworks but we were just too tired to wait. So we had ice cream and left early. On Monday we went to the Studios, that was mike's first time there... we got to walk right on Tower of Terror which was awesome! We missed Lights, Motors Action which was kindof a bummer but we were hungry for lunch. We went over by my apt for lunch and then stopped in so I could turn in my journal to the education office and email my instructor and we hung out with Katie there for awhile. We went back to All Star to swim because it was pretty hot! We got to watch The Magic Memories & you and Wishes! We went on Haunted Mansion and the new line & hitch hiking ghosts were awesome! Tuesday we went to Blizzard Beach, which isnt included in the maingate but I got in free and I could buy mike a 1/2 price ticket so that was awesome and it was really fun... Spent a lot of time in the lazy river and on the slides. Had lunch at the hotel and then we played putt putt at Winter Summerland and it was really cute!! I went to class on Wednesday and it was short bc they were working in groups and thats not my usual class so I got to leave early, went to All Star and had some ice cream with mike and waited for Magical Express to take him back to the airport and then I went to work until midnight! whew. Work til 1 the rest of this week. Have a labor exception for my class then next 2 weeks for easter but im only scheduled to work 5 days next week. so i actually have more time than usual! hah cool! I'm pretty sure they will extend park hours tho. I also have 1 shift til 3:45 AM next week yay

Monday, April 4, 2011

Today was my first day back to Main Street. Mickey's new meet & greet is open @ Town Square theater, the Storybook Princesses are also there. We have a new shop there where the meet and greets end its called Curtain Call Collectibles its really cute. When I was in CCC I met a dad with his family that are from Toledo! I told him mom worked at St. V's and he said he goes to lunch there a lot! Tooo funny. Anyways we were talking about Marketing and the college program for awhile and he gave me his card. Its crazy how you find people like that. My last day in frontierland a lady i was ringing up was wearing a Michigan shirt but handed me a Texas drivers license. I told her I expected to see a MI one, and she told me she used to live there and I said where at thats where I'm from. She started asking me if I new flat rock! I said yeah I'm actually from Carleton... She went to Airport high school!!!!! How funny! But now she lives in TX because thats where her husband works!
I was in Uptown for most of the night, it really flew by. At the end of the night I was the Proprietor, which is like shop owner & merchantaining/ passing out ear has etc... in the Chapeau. It helps the people who are sewing to be able to work on hats instead of dealing with guest questions & interruptions. There were 2 machines down when I got there and the girl sewing was still earning her ears so while a stocker & leader worked on the broken machines i helped her sew on the others. It was after midnight and I heard a mom say to her family its already her birthday its after 12! (they were all waiting for hats, the wait was long bc the machines that were down were backing us up) So when I heard her I said its your birthday?!?!?! Well we need to sing to you! Do you all want to help sing to Julianna?! And then everyone working & waiting in the chapeau sang to her and she was 7! Then I finished her hat and it was really cute.

A little while later the leader that was fixing the sewing machine during all this gave me a GSF card for going above & beyond!! :) Yay! So exciting

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Frontierland has been good. Today is my last day there! The week went by pretty fast despite it being the longest one so far! 6 days and about 48 hours.
We had a couple really slow days because it poured rain all night and all day, it was crazy.
The upper part of Frontierland I've been at is the pin Trading Post, Prarie, the candy store and Big Als the little outdoor stand with toys. The weather is beautiful now the last two days, workin on my tan at the pool :)
I got 2 monrail pins this week!!!!!! I'll post a pic of them in the next couple days!